


Falling into Your Ocean Eyes

by Rikkapikasnikka



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Dancing and Singing, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Excessive use of music, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Hot Mess Adrien Agreste, Hot Mess Luka Couffaine, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Post-Episode 108: Copycat, Protective Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Protective Luka Couffaine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23751847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkapikasnikka/pseuds/Rikkapikasnikka
Summary: Five months after the fact, Adrien discovers that Marinette had left him a voicemail on his phone. Now aware of Marinette's feelings for him, he decides to confront her, only to discover that she's dating someone else! Heartbroken, he goes along with her double-date ideas just to spend some time with her.When Adrien discovers that she has a crush on him, Marinette panics and states that she's dating Luka. Realising her mistake, she begs Luka to go along with it, not expecting that she may start to fall for him instead! Meanwhile, Luka finds himself falling even further for the girl who put a song inside his head.Endgame Lukanette, Fake Dating AU for Darcy on the MLB FF Discord for AU April
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 38
Kudos: 63
Collections: April 2020 - AU





	Falling into Your Ocean Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FridayFirefly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridayFirefly/gifts).



> After I struggled my way through the first scene, this practically wrote itself! Darcy, I hope you enjoy! <3 I can't promise _when_ chapters will be out, but I hope to have this finished sooner rather than later. Thank you to everyone on the discord for inspiring me to write!!
> 
> A huge Thank You to Sibby and Khan who helped me plan and beta this story!

It was a weird accident and pure coincidence that led to Adrien discovering the deleted voicemail. Apparently the newest update for his phone’s OS had failed and caused it to crash. After talking with tech support, he learned it was a rare occurrence that shouldn’t repeat with the newest patch, and he’d be able to restore all of his information after downloading it. So now, he sat at home with his phone plugged into his computer while he scrolled through the backups saved to the cloud.

He selected the newest one, and a prompt popped up:

_Would you like to restore previously deleted messages and voicemails?_

Adrien furrowed his brow; he never deleted messages or voicemails from his phone, as he received so little, and he couldn’t think of a time he had needed to. So he selected ‘yes’ without much thought and let his computer and phone do their technology thing while he worked through some homework.

The backup finished as he was getting ready for bed, and Adrien grinned as the startup screen on his phone finished loading.

“I never realise how reliant I am on this thing until I can’t use it,” Adrien joked as he sat down on the side of his bed. Plagg lazily floated over. 

“You’re just attached ‘cause it has all your pictures of _Ladybug_ ,” Plagg teased. Adrien waved him away, his face scrunching, but the kwami avoided his fingers and laughed.

“I hope I didn’t miss anything,” Adrien mumbled, scrolling first through his text messages. One from Nino, wishing his phone a safe recovery, and one from Nathalie about tomorrow’s schedule. Adrien absently texted Nino back - letting him know his phone was functional again - and then checked his missed calls.

Only to pause.

Nine voicemails? He swore he only had eight saved, last he checked. Curious, he tapped through to the list. The newest voicemail, however, was one that he recognised: Kagami calling to leave details about their next fencing tournament. Adrien looked down the list, noticing nothing out of the ordinary--

Wait.

When had Alya called him?

According to his phone, it had been May eighth, some five months ago. Adrien had never had a phone call with Alya, and he tried to rack his brain for what could’ve happened on May eighth.

_Oh._

May eighth was a holiday, Victory Day. He brought a hand up to his chin; the Ladybug and Chat Noir statue had been revealed in the park that day, if he remembered right. He flinched at the memory; Adrien still wasn’t proud of his actions that had led to the akuma, but watching Théo pine after Ladybug had sat so _wrong_ with him. She was Adrien’s age! And Théo was nearly an adult!

But why would Alya call him? Perhaps about the statue? No, that didn’t make sense - if Alya had figured out he was Chat Noir, she would’ve pestered him much further than a phone call. And that still didn’t explain _how_ the voicemail had disappeared from his phone. Adrien knew the solution was to just listen to it, but…

Plagg settled on his head. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a new voicemail on my phone.”

“Oh?”

Adrien scrolled further down the list, just to make sure that all the others were the same. They were.

“Remember Copycat?” Adrien started.

“I remember you being _jealous_.”

Adrien ignored the comment. “Alya called me the same day. I’m _guessing_ it was about that statue, but… Why would she call me?”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Just listen to the voicemail.”

He still hesitated.

“But why was it deleted?” 

“Maybe if you _listen to it,_ you’ll find out!” Plagg grumbled.

“What if…” Adrien gulped. “What if she knows?”

“Oh for _cheese sakes…”_

Plagg floated down and tapped the voicemail that Adrien’s thumb had been hovering over. Adrien cried, “Plagg!!” as his kwami flew away, cackling. 

_“It’s gone to voicemail!”_

He had started to stand to chase after Plagg, but the voice coming from his phone gave him pause. Wasn’t that…?

_“Hello, uhhh, Adrien’s voicemail! Uh, this is Marinette--”_

Yes, it was. Adrien sat back down, staring at his phone in shock.

_“--who, uh, has a message...for you! Of course, ‘cause it’s uh, your phone soo, uhm…”_

She sounded just as anxious as usual, and he couldn’t help a small smile from crossing his face as she nervously giggled. A thousand thoughts were running through his head, but it meant a surprising amount to him that she had _called_ him, left him a message, thought _of_ him...

_“Call-me-see-you-later-BYE!”_

And he thought that _must_ be the end of the voicemail, but it was capped at the full thirty-seconds and there were fourteen left. Adrien glanced up at Plagg to voice his thoughts aloud (why had she called him, why had he never heard this before, did Plagg know of this?), but suddenly, Marinette’s voice came from his phone again. 

It was strange. She sounded more sure, more confident, like she did in class or with her friends. She also sounded further away, as if the phone wasn’t in her hands anymore. Adrien frowned, confused.

 _“What? What did you_ expect _me to say?”_

He didn’t know what he expected, honestly.

_“‘Hey, hot stuff, this is Marinette. I’d ask you on a date to a movie, but I’ve got such a crazy crush on you--”_

Wait, _what?!_

_“--that the only way I can talk to you without foaming at the mouth--’”_

And it ended.

Both human and kwami sat frozen, the former shocked and the latter surprised. Slowly, Adrien lifted his eyes to Plagg, his whole body trembling, and slowly, his phone slipped from his fingers to clatter on the ground. 

“Marinette…” Adrien started. He had to close his mouth, swallow, lick his lips, and try again. “Marinette has a...crush. On _me.”_

“Yes,” Plagg drawled. “I heard it too.”

“She… She wanted to…” 

He broke eye contact with Plagg and his head dropped into his hands. Adrien tugged at his hair until his scalp stung, trying to get his rapidly accelerating breathing under control, but his heart was already running, racing, _hurting…_

The last few months played through his head, all of his interactions with Marinette standing out in stark clarity. Suddenly, her awkward, nervous behavior made sense - he had often found it endearing, but now he understood _why._ He had been willing to kiss her (for school, he had told himself), he had enjoyed dancing with her at Chloe’s party, and seeing a movie with her had been one of the best days of his life, even if it hadn’t exactly panned out. And then he remembered the photographs plastered around her room, Alya and Nino constantly trying to get them alone together, her kindness and her smile and her _bravery…_

“Shit,” Adrien whined, tugging at his hair a little harder. His thoughts were spiraling, but they were all heading towards one, solid conclusion that both terrified and thrilled him.

“You alright, kid?” Plagg asked, drifting a little closer. 

“No.”

Plagg remained quiet, waiting out the storm. He knew that Adrien would eventually admit to what Plagg already suspected; he just had to be patient.

And after several long, heavy minutes, Adrien did:

“...I think I’m in love with Marinette.”

* * *

The day started out normal enough for her. Her alarm woke her up, she missed the snooze button, and she knocked her phone off her nightstand and onto the floor - the floor that was a whole ladder climb away. Marinette peered over the edge of the railing and groaned.

“Marinette?”

Her mother poked her head through her trapdoor, peering curiosity at first her daughter and then the phone, its alarm still blaring. Sabine smiled knowingly. 

“Morning, _maman.”_

“Good morning, my dear. Will you be coming down for breakfast?”

“In a bit…” She grumbled, rolling away from the railing to get out of bed. Her mother disappeared back into the living area, and the trapdoor closed softly behind her. Marinette slowly climbed down the ladder, and Tikki zoomed out from beneath the pillows to greet her.

“Good morning, Marinette!” 

“Morning, Tikki. Did you sleep well?”

“As good as always!”

And as normal, Marinette was jealous. Why couldn’t _she_ wake up as refreshed and happy as her kwami? She fought past the groggy haze that kept trying to woo her back to bed, washed her face, pulled on her school clothes, and assembled her schoolbag. Her homework was sprawled in a messy pile across her desk, and she swept it all into her bag reluctantly. 

Had she finished it last night? Her mind had been so preoccupied. She’d have to have a look at it later, probably in class, before she turned any of it in.

“Let’s get breakfast, Marinette!” 

“Tikki,” Marinette shushed her. “Hide!”

Her kwami zipped into her purse, and Marinette headed downstairs.

Breakfast was normal: tea, juice, fruit, toast and jam. She helped her mother put the dishes away so she could sneak cookies to Tikki, one for now and one for later, and they talked about Marinette’s classes, her homework, and--

“I saw that your absences are getting better,” Sabine commented. Marinette winced, but she tried to grin. 

“Y-Yeah!” She stuttered. “I uh, wrote down my schedule in all my notebooks! It helps me remember!”

“That’s great, sweetie.” Sabine turned away from the sink to give her daughter a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Please keep up the good work. Your father and I are proud of you.”

Marinette relaxed, relieved that her mum wasn’t going to push the issue, and hugged her back. “I’ll do my best, _maman.”_

Sabine chuckled. “You should head out now, or you’ll be late.”

“Of course! I’ll see you later!”

Marinette pulled away, grabbed her bag, and headed out the door. She got halfway down the stairs, realised her mistake, and turned around.

“Tikki, I forgot my shoes!” 

A normal day...until she got to school.

Alya was standing at the bottom of the front steps when Marinette arrived, shoes and all, and she didn’t return Marinette’s friendly wave. Instead, she stood with her arms folded and a frown on her face, looking worried.

“Hey… What’s wrong?” Marinette asked, approaching her best friend cautiously. An angry Alya was _not_ an Alya she wanted to cross. A dozen different reasons could be behind her ire, and Marinette’s secret identity was one of them.

Alya pouted, and Marinette relaxed a little.

“It’s...complicated,” Alya admitted. “But Adrien’s looking for you.”

“Adrien?!” Marinette squeaked, taking a step back. She anxiously looked back and forth, as if the model would pop up from behind the bushes. Alya nodded in confirmation, glancing back towards the school doors. Her anger had faded into concern.

“He told me not to tell you, but…” Alya scowled. “I don’t like this, Marinette. He’s _up_ to something, and it’s fishy.”

She relaxed a little, but Marinette knew better than to let her guard down. Adrien had a habit of just popping up behind her, startling her. Of course, part of the surprise was because she had a crush on him, but lately, he seemed to do it more on purpose rather than on accident.

“It’s Adrien,” she said with a smile. “It can’t be _that_ bad.”

Oh, how very wrong she was…

Together, the two girls walked up the steps to the courtyard, but Marinette could tell that Alya wasn’t convinced of Adrien’s innocence. Marinette tried to steer the conversation - “Did you finish the reading last night?” - but Alya was uninvested in the small talk and only made a small hum of affirmation.

“Did you maybe want to go over it befo--?”

“Marinette!”

She had had plenty of forewarning, but her feet still rooted her to the ground when he spoke her name and graced her with that dazzling, sunny smile. She swallowed, audibly, as the handsome, gorgeous, _perfect_ boy approached her - eyes shining bright and green and brilliant in the morning sunlight, hair carefully styled into its windswept elegance, clothes meticulously pressed and clean and fitted to his--

Marinette forced all of that out of her head. 

“Adrien!” She greeted, her face breaking out into a wide smile. “Good morning!”

He stopped right in front of her, his grin widening, but then he glanced sideways and saw Alya - who was glaring at him. Adrien frowned, sighed, and then turned to Marinette again.

“Can I talk with you? Alone?”

“Of… Of course!” Marinette chirped. Together, the two of them walked towards a more secluded corner of the courtyard, and Alya stayed where she was - her hard eyes never leaving Adrien as he nervously escorted Marinette away. He turned away from her once they were out of earshot of the other students, and Marinette looked up at his face.

She was surprised to find him nervous. He was rubbing the back of his neck, chewing his bottom lip, and Marinette found herself relaxing. 

“Did you ever get your phone fixed?” She asked, figuring that she may as well kick start the conversation. Adrien blinked in astonishment, and he grinned as he dropped his hand.

“Yeah, I did!” He said, smiling that bright, cheery smile of his. “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about! Kind of.”

He went back to being shy, nervous. Marinette thought it cute.

“You see…” He mumbled. “I had to download an old backup from the Cloud, to restore everything. And uhm, it recovered… Well, it recovered anything that had been deleted. Or erased. Or _something.”_

Marinette nodded, digging through her memory. What did this have to do with her…?

Suddenly, it hit her.

_Oh no._

Her eyes slowly went wide. Adrien didn’t notice.

“And I found this…this…voicemail, from the past, on my phone. And it was from Alya, but uh, I think it was you - well, they _said_ it was you - and I wanted to know if...if…”

Alarm bells were ringing in her head. Fear was flooding her veins. Her instinct was to _Deny! Deny! Deny!_ and flee to the furthest corner of the city. If her eyes grew any wider, they were going to drop out of her head and roll down to the street, but at least then she wouldn’t be able to cry out of pure terror.

“A v-voicemail?” She stuttered, trying to sound nonchalant. “From me?! How silly!”

Adrien hesitated and frowned. “Uhm,” he looked confused. “Yeah. From you.”

“I d-didn’t even have your number back then!” Marinette giggled, her voice a little too high pitched to be realistic. Her hands were shaking, and she started to fidget. Adrien tilted his head, his brow furrowing. 

“I didn’t say when it was sent…” He said slowly, and Marinette squeaked in fright.

“Of course n-not! Silly me, I’m sorry!” She tried to step to the side, to get around him. “Well, I guest be off to glass, I mean-- Best be off to _class_ \--”

Adrien stepped in front of her, blocking her escape. “Marinette,” he whined. “I just want to know if what you said was true or not. Please.”

Her laughter went up several more octaves. She waved her hands, her body desperately trying to not bolt and run. “Wh-What! No way, not at all!”

The pain and shock that flashed on Adrien’s face would’ve broken her heart if she was in the right frame of mind. But she barely registered it, too horrified that the object of her infatuation had discovered her true feelings, and her brain was scrambling to assemble and disassemble the pieces.

“R-Really?” Adrien asked, pleading. “Not even...then?”

_Take it back, take it back!!_

“O-Oh well, back then, y-yeah!” Marinette floundered. “I h-had a _huuuuge_ brush- CRUSH!- on you!” She laughed again as her face broke into a blush as red as the kwami in her purse. “But nope, not anymore! Not at all! No feelings here, haha!” She tried to give him a thumb’s up.

Adrien looked torn between despair and bewilderment.

“So uhm,” he toed the ground, rubbed the back of his neck again, and glanced up at her with soft green eyes. “If I...wanted to take you up on that date?”

_Abort!!_

“I already have a date!” Marinette countered.

Adrien blinked. Marinette wanted to put her foot in her mouth.

For several long seconds, they stared at each other, Marinette desperately trying to hold together her strained smile and Adrien trying to process what she had just said. Slowly, his face fell.

“Uhm,” he licked his lips, bit the bottom one, and shuffled his feet. “May I ask who with?”

“Uhh…” Marinette fiddled with the strap of her bag, her eyes darting nervously back and forth. Yet the perfect name came to her when she spotted someone across the courtyard: Just now walking in with her bright, bubbly girlfriend was--

“Luka! Luka Couffaine!”

\--Juleka. 

“Luka?” Adrien repeated, his face falling even further.

“Y-Yes!” Marinette sidestepped again, and this time, he didn’t try to stop her. “Y’know, buitar, glue hair, super sweet--”

“Oh, y-yeah…”

He looked like such a kicked puppy that she hesitated, all her rapidly forming thoughts coming to a screeching halt. Marinette nibbled the inside of her cheek, trying to think about how she could make him happy, when the perfect idea clicked into her head. After all, he had suggested it himself once before!

“We could do a double date again!” She spoke up, chipper and excited. Adrien raised an eyebrow at her, confusion apparent before realisation settled in.

“With Luka and Kagami?” He asked, more curious now than upset. Yes! This was good! She could do this!

“Yes!” Marinette agreed, grinning wildly and lifting her hands to pump her fists in triumph. “Saturday! We can uh, mee a sovie! See a movie!!” She just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide away for the rest of the day.

The sadness in Adrien’s eyes faded into calm acceptance, and he gave her one of his model smiles as he nodded lightly. “Alright. I would like that. I’ll let you know if Kagami can come.”

“Awesome! I’ll see you in blass-- _class_ \-- Adrien!” 

And she darted for the locker room as fast as her feet could carry her, her heart pounding and her lungs trembling, all as her brain desperately tried to catch up with whatever _that_ was. As the pieces slowly came back to her, Marinette sat down on a bench and put her face into her hands, groaning.

What had she _done?_ And better yet, how was she going to get out of it?!

* * *

“You didn’t tell me you were seeing someone.”

Luka had just come home from his courier job. He dropped his school bag on the couch, sat down, and started unlacing his shoes.

“I’m not,” he answered in confusion, pulling off one shoe and starting on the other. He glanced at his sister, his brow furrowed. “Why?” 

Juleka tapped her pencil on her paper. She was curled up on the other side of the couch, textbook and homework in her lap, and she looked uneasy.

“...Just a rumour,” she mumbled finally. “At school, y’know.”

He finished pulling off his other shoe, set them next to each other on the floor, and leaned back against the cushions. He racked his memory, trying to imagine _any_ scenario where he might’ve agreed to a date or a relationship, but he honestly couldn’t. And why would the rumour persist at _Juleka’s_ school and not his own?

“Sooo,” he started, his voice carrying a teasing lilt that caused Juleka to wiggle her nose. “Who am I seeing?”

The tapping of her pencil grew faster as she glanced down at her homework, across the room, to the windows; she looked anywhere and everywhere but never _at_ him. A seed of unease planted itself in Luka’s belly. He frowned and sat a little straighter, aware that her answer would not come easy, and that there was probably some truth to this rumour she had heard.

“Juleka…” He tried, but she shook her head. 

“Marinette,” she answered in a mutter. “My friend, Marinette.”

His heart stuttered but his blood froze.

As if answering to her name, the melody at the back of his mind sprang to the forefront, demanding attention. He could pick out the chords on his fingers, and he itched to pick up his acoustic guitar to work out an accompanying harmony for the main refrain. Yet although the music demanded his attention, Luka swallowed the inspiration to try and work his way towards the truth.

“I’m not seeing Marinette,” he denied with a chuckle. It hurt to laugh it off, but what was he supposed to do? She was pursuing someone else; if a rumour was really forming that she was dating him instead, she’d never get the opportunity to be with that other boy. Luka didn’t want to hurt her chances. “Where’d you hear that from?”

“Adrien.”

The music in his head stopped with the equivalence of a record scratch.

“...Wh-What?” He asked, shocked, eyes wide and fingers twitching. “Adrien? _Agreste_ , Adrien?”

Juleka wouldn’t look at him, but she nodded at her textbook, her pencil tapping so fast that it flew out of her hand before her next reply. “Apparently there’s a uh, double date.”

Luka would’ve choked on his own spit if he could, but his mouth had gone oddly dry. He bent over and picked the pencil up off the ground and handed it back to her. His sister took it with a quiet, “Thanks.”

He swallowed.

“A-Anything else?” He asked, his voice weak.

“....No. But the whole school seems to think it’s true.”

Luka nodded. “I’m...gonna go work on my homework then.”

And he picked up his school bag and dragged it to their room.

Yet when he pulled out folders and textbooks and assignment sheets, he could see none of it. Fear was blinding him; if this rumour was really taking off, then _he_ was ruining Marinette’s chances with Adrien. Part of Luka wanted to text the model immediately: stave off the rumours, reassure him that there was _nothing_ between him and Marinette, that Adrien was free to- to what? Ask her out? Did Luka _want_ that? 

If he was honest with himself, no.

That same part of him, a more twisted part, wanted to go along with the rumour. If Adrien believed Marinette was taken, then they wouldn’t end up together. If Marinette remained single, if Adrien refused to pursue Marinette, then that meant that she was free… Free for Luka to pursue, safely, without the fear that she’d start dating a more perfect, more handsome, more talented boy. Luka _knew_ he was no competition, as terrible as that was.

He had to take a deep breath, wrestle with his emotions, and ease the ache in his chest. This could all be solved by simply talking to Adrien. Or better yet…

His phone chimed. Luka hastily dug into the pocket of his jeans, unlocked it, and stared down at the message that awaited him.

 _i did something stupid_ _  
_ _can we meet up n talk?_ _  
_ _please?_

It was Marinette. Luka audibly gulped, and his hands were shaking as he carefully typed out a response. He had no idea what was going on, but judging from her text alone, Luka assumed that _she_ was the true source of the rumour.

 _yes, ofc_ _  
_ _anything for u_

**Author's Note:**

> [Come and join us on the Miraculous Fanworks Discord server!](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks)  
> We are a community of MLB fans who write, read, beta, collab, and even exchange fanfiction and fanart. We run events, Author AMAs, calendar prompts, writing and art sprints, and we even have a book club for fanfics! Come join over 500 amazing, supportive Ladybug and Chat Noir fans today!


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